The Crucible, Act IVBy Arthur Miller

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Yes, you will be turning your notes in for my review.

I will return them on Thursday.

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Don’t be late on Thursay! Clean slate – 4th

marking period.

Don’t accumulate 3 lates over the marking period.

Be on time and no one gets a detention.

What’s this play about?

1692 1952

1945 – 1952: WWII to Cold War

IRON CURTAIN

1949

CHINA FALLS TO COMMUNISM USSR GETS A-BOMB

Julius & Ethel Rosenberg

Communist Threat – Red Scare House Committee

on Un-American Activities

Sen. Joseph McCarthy

Goal: find communist traitors here in USA

Miller’s friend Elia Kazan

Miller visits Kazan 1952

“Since I was on my way up to Salem for research on a play that I was still unsure I would write, I called at his house, which was on my route. As he laid out his dilemma and his decision to comply with the HUAC, it was impossible not to feel his anguish, old friends that we were. But the crunch came when I felt fear. For it swept over me that, had I been one of his comrades, he would have spent my name as part of the guarantee of his reform. Even so, oddly enough, I was not filling up with hatred or contempt for him; his suffering was too palpable. The whole hateful procedure had brought him to this, and I believe made the writing of The Crucible all but inevitable.”

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Act IV

Italics Tituba Sarah Good Herrick Cheever Hale Danforth Hathorne Parris Elizabeth Proctor

Page 981

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Parris

That confession surely damns the others in the public eye, and none may doubt more that they are linked to Hell.

This way, unconfessed and claiming innocence, doubts are multiplied … and our good purpose is lost.

We need Rebecca Nurse, John Proctor, or Martha Corey to confess.

Otherwise, people won’t believe that what we are doing is right.

Danforth

Twelve are already executed; the names of these seven are given out, and the village expects to see them die this morning.

Reprieve or pardon must cast doubt upon the guilt of them that died till now.

We’ve already killed 12 people.

If we stop now, we are admitting that we killed those people in error.

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The Crucible, Act IV

Page 987

Italics Elizabeth Danforth Hale Proctor Parris Rebecca Nurse Herrick

Why did the Salem Witch Trials start?

According to The Crucible, Act IV:

Elizabeth Proctor was a cold wife. This drove John Proctor to have an affair with

Abigail, their servant. Goody Proctor fired Abby. Abby went to Tituba for a “charm” to kill

Proctor’s wife. Parris caught Abby & the girls with Tituba. Abby accused others to cover up what she was

doing. 20 people killed as a result.

Why does John Proctor confess? Nothing’s spoiled

by giving them this lie that were not rotten long before.

Refusing to confess will not “keep my children out of the wind.”

I’m already a sinner because of the adultery, I’m already going to hell, so adding another sin is no big deal.

I’m no good to my 4 kids if I’m dead. If I’m alive I can support them, care for them.

Why won’t he name names? They think to go

like saints. I like not to spoil their names.

I have three children – how may I teach them to walk like men in the world, and I sold my friends.

I don’t want to ruin anyone else’s reputation.

I might be a sinner myself, but I want to set an example for my kids not to be a tattle-tale.

Why does Proctor rip up his confession?

Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life!

For now I do think I see some shred of goodness in John Proctor. Not enough to weave a banner with, but white enough to keep it from such dogs.

How can you live with yourself? “That John Proctor

the sinner might overturn his paralyzing personal guilt and become the most forthright voice against the madness around him was a reassurance to me, and, I suppose, and inspiration.”

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Irony

A clash between:

Appearance & reality

Expectation & result

Intended meaning & actual meaning

Surprising at first blush

But actually very fitting when you think about it.

Lennie Small

Irony

Hale attempts to persuade Elizabeth that John should make a false confession.

1. Hale is a Puritan minister, so he should be on the side of truth.

2. & when he arrived in Act I to investigate the witchcraft, he told everyone to be “prepared to believe me if I should find no” witchcraft. He didn’t want anyone falsely jumping to conclusions.

Irony

Rebecca Nurse dies and Sarah Good is saved.

Nurse is nice, devout, pure, & religious. Sarah sleeps in ditches, doesn’t go to church. You would think Nurse is the one that the Puritan ministers would want to “save,” but instead they hang her.

Irony

Abigail has stolen Rev. Parris’s money & run away.

The girl that all the Puritan ministers believed to be holy & true turns out a liar & a thief. (But even after she runs away, they are still willing to hang Rebecca Nurse & John Proctor.)

Irony

Elizabeth is saved because of her pregnancy.

She was condemned as a witch & sentenced to die, but because her hanging gets postponed until after all the hysteria has died down, she gets set free. (This is the true fate of the real life Elizabeth Proctor.)

(unintentional?) She’s supposed to be a cold wife who drove her husband to adultery, but if she’s pregnant she couldn’t have been that cold.

Irony

Danforth refuses to accept John’s confession if it is a lie.

This Puritan has executed 12 people based on Abby’s lies, & he now knows Abby has run off, but he still insists that he is seeking out truth.

John Proctor

Has an internal conflict. He feels guilty for committing adultery. He wants to take a stand against all of the nonsense and hysteria around him. He’s trying to decide what’s better – lie about witchcraft & live, or refuse to lie & die. He chooses to live & Miller presents this as the correct choice in these circumstances.

Elizabeth Proctor

She also feels guilty the breakdown of her marriage. She doesn’t know how to advise her husband about the choice he needs to make at the end. She approves of John’s choice at the end to go to his death.

Hale

Is a dynamic character who changes from Act I to Act IV. By the end, he realizes that the Witch Trials are bogus, and he feels responsible for causing these hangings – he started the witchcraft investigations. He is just trying to save lives however he can. He’s decided that lies are better than more death (he’s a contrast to John Proctor).

Danforth

By the end, the play suggests that he is the worst character on stage. He refuses to acknowledge the truth that is plainly before him – that the witch trials are bogus, that Proctor & Nurse are innocent, and that they should not be executed. He continues because he does not want to admit to himself that he has already executed 12 people in error.

Mary Warren

During Act III, Mary Warren is shown to be a very weak person. Proctor tries to get her to tell the truth, but in the end, she can’t oppose Abigail & the society around her. She caves in & starts pretending that she is bewitched.

Themes (some of them)

1. Extreme religious fanaticism (like Puritanism) leads to ignoring the facts, hysteria, death.

2. Salem witch trials lead to “innocent until proven guilty” – we have a trial by jury system to avoid trial by hysteria.

3. It’s easy to accuse, it’s difficult to defend.4. There are times when the group, the majority, the

society gets hysterical & gets it wrong, and then it’s hard for one individual to stand up against the group.

5. Americans like to present themselves as moral, pure, holy, correct; but the “ministers” are no more holy than the rest of us.

6. We’re all hypocrites, we’re all a mix of good & bad, how will you reconcile that within yourself?

Surviving Boston bombing suspect to be tried in federal court.

Should Dzhokar Tzarnaev be prosecuted by a military tribunal as an “enemy combatant,” or should he get all of the protecttions that criminals get in a normal US federal court trial? Make an argument either way, and support your argument by making an analogy to The Crucible by Arthur Miller.

The Boston Bomber should be prosecuted by a military tribunal.

The Crucible by Arthur Miller shows that extreme religious fanaticism leads to a disregard for human life. In the play, an extreme version of Christianity (Puritanism) leads Judge Danforth to execute John Proctor & Rebecca Nurse. In Boston, we saw how an extreme version of Islam lead the Tsarnaev brothers explode two bombs in a crowd, killing three people and wounding hundreds. Dzhokahar Tsarnaev saw this as an act of jihad, or holy war. Under his own interpretation, Tsarnaev sees himself as an enemy combatant, and should be tried as such.

The Boston Bomber should be tried in US federal court.

The Crucible by Arthur Miller shows the dangers of allowing fear to overcome common sense in a rush to judgment. In the play, the fear of witchcraft lead the courts to admit “spectral evidence” and twenty innocent people were executed as a result. Miller was using the situation in Salem as an allegory for the Red Scare of the 1950s, when fear of communism lead the HUAC to make wild accusations ruining the lives and careers of innocent Americans.

While the Boston bombings were certainly frightening, there is no need to rush to judgment. Dzhokhar Tzarnaev is a US citizen, even if the evidence against him is overwhelming. Our federal courts have the ability to sort through the evidence carefully and determine his guilt.